His breakfast churning in his stomach, junior German Martinez struggles to carry senior Lucas Flores across a field in a fireman’s carry.

“I was about to give up,” Martinez said. “I was about to be like, ‘No, I can’t do this anymore.”

The fireman’s carry was one of a series of events in which the Raider team – in which JROTC cadets build endurance and stamina – competed at the Allen Raider Meet. The fireman’s carry is designed to distribute a soldier’s weight with minimal exertion across another soldier’s body, but practicing it in a competitive setting was still physically demanding.

Flores, who is a battalion commander, tried to motivate Martinez to finish carrying him across the 100 meters.

“He needs to be told directly, and that’s exactly what I did,” Flores said. “I said, ‘Hey, you need to do this. This is not a time for you to quit.’”

Flores also lead the Raider team members through other events, such as the one-rope bridge, marksmanship, Marine combat fitness test, and 2.5-mile run. The Raider team took about two hours to complete the course of events.

“My goal for my team was to gain experience,” Flores said.

In one of the events, the cadets had to swim across 100 meters of water with a 45-pound backpack on their backs. Sophomore Angeles Romero was unable to compete in this event because of religious restrictions, so Emma Durrant-Hall completed it for her despite a lack of prior preparation.

“I was just like, I didn’t sign up for this,” Durrant-Hall said. “But I kind of did sign up for this. I don’t want to do it, but I’ll do it.”

In other events like the one-rope bridge, in which cadets move across a rope hanging over a creek, some students lead their teammates and helped them cross. One such student was senior Jeremiah Bell.

“I saw something in him that we didn’t see until this year,” Flores said, “ … that cockiness … seeing Jeremiah grow out of it, I feel like that was an exceptional growth moment.”

Flores described the “brotherhood” of JROTC, as well as the family-like bond created by the Raider team’s early-morning workouts and hard work.

“It doesn’t matter where we are in the program,” Flores said. “I will level down with you, I will walk everything with you just to help you strive, and hopefully you’ll see my rank on your shoulders.”